General Director of Rocket and Space Corporation Energia Vladimir Solntsev for the first time spoke in detail about an unusual Russian-US project. This reported by Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

A comfortable cabin with a large window, a toilet with every amenity, delicacies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the possibility “to get some air” in the evening – to go on a spacewalk… Things that were undreamed of by those seven very rich tourists who did manage to visit the International Space Station.

And now...

- The idea came up after we have almost finished constructing the Science and Power Module (the reference here is to SPM, the new module for Russian Segment of the ISS. – A.M.). It is to be launched in 2019, - says the chief executive of the RSC Energia Vladimir Solntsev. – So it turns out that our R&D effort has been done for the sake of a single product, and this is quite an expenditure of government money. That’s a shame. And we’ve developed a good manufacturing process.

It is only logical that since we now have the documentation, we could build a second, similar module. But it would cost significantly less. Because then it would no longer be expensive one-off production, but more like small-series manufacturing.

We offered to Boeing to become our partner and supplier of specific science equipment. And they were interested.

100 million dollars for a walk

- And why do we need a second module when the first one will solve all the problems that the new configuration of the Russian Segment of the ISS is supposed to address?

- SPM will indeed provide power generation capacity to the Russian modules, of which they currently have a deficit. But SPM-2 (that’s what we call it for now) is being designed for quite a different purpose.

This might turn out to be a module with improved creature comforts for a crew of 4 to 6. They will have comfortable crew quarters, two toilets, and internet access. Generally speaking, it will be as comfortable as it can be in space. We also discussed the possibility of tourists going out for a spacewalk. Marketing experts began to calculate and confirmed that wealthy people would be willing to pay money for this. He would go on a spacewalk, this will be filmed, a video will be made…

- How much will such a flight set a tourist back?

- This is market-driven. It may get as high as 100 million dollars. Too steep? We’ll negotiate. There might be a discount for the first tourist…

We have already found an investor. But we’ll have to borrow money anyway. We will try, to the maximum extent possible, to raise the required money in the market – from investors, or from potential tourists. It’s like housing construction – people chip in and then wait for their house to be built. We could set up a space version of this here.

We don’t need any government investments. We have prepared a business plan, we are going to break even in about 7.5 years.

- Assuming how many tourists??

- If we fly 5 to 6 persons a year, we’ll break even within this timeframe. But the module can be visited by more clients per year. Those will be short missions – a week, ten days, no longer than that. The current constraint is the delivery vehicle.

- Do you mean to deliver tourists on Soyuz spacecraft?

- Yes. Both spacecraft and the launch vehicle.

- Can this be a module within the ISS?

- Yes.

- You are saying that in order for the project to break even you need 7.5 years. It will take three years to build the module. That means that if the ISS stays in orbit till 2024, according to the current agreement with the participants in the project, SPM-2 will only be able to stay within the station for three years…

- You are saying that in order for the project to break even you need 7.5 years. It will take three years to build the module. That means that if the ISS stays in orbit till 2024, according to the current agreement with the participants in the project, SPM-2 will only be able to stay within the station for three years…

What is going to happen after 2024? It is clear that we are not going to de-orbit the new modules. Some decision will have to be made. It is also possible that the ISS mission will be extended till 2028. In any case, the aim is to enable the Russian Segment to stay in orbit as an independent vehicle.

That’s what we are planning to achieve with the construction of the new power module. So, what we may end up with in the future is a Russian orbital station, which will include a module for the tourists, but let me point it out once again – this is just one of the possible options.

- You were saying that the diameter of the SPM modules is more than 4 meters. So it seems that a new standard for orbital station modules is being developed. In the past our stations Salyut, core module of Mir, our ISS modules all looked similar and were constructed along the same lines.

- The new module is radically different from them. The diameter of its pressurized compartment is 4.1 meter. This is a comfortable volume within which a person can move freely. It also has a very different level of available power and other capabilities to accommodate scientific equipment. The module really becomes a state-of-the-art multifunctional module.

Inflate it and live in it

- RSC Energia is working on one more module, an inflatable one…

- The correct term would be a transformable module. We did the research and development work on it at our own expense, and have conducted a full cycle of tests. We got favorable opinions from all authorities and are ready to manufacture a module for tests in orbit. But, unfortunately, Roscosmos has not placed an order with us for it yet, because, as far as I can see, of the shortage of their resources.

- And what about adapting it for the tourists? There is a project of an inflatable hotel from Bigelow Aerospace, an experimental inflatable module from that company is currently attached to the ISS…

- This module still needs to pass evaluation tests. It needs to be tested for leakage, fire safety, smoke, off-gassing, gas permeability, fungi. It must pass the stage of experimental development at first as an engineering model. But all of this needs and can be tested under real spaceflight conditions.

And now about the Moon…

- Has Russian participation in the cislunar station been defined?

- Yes. We suggest that our partners use our airlock module. Concurrently, all docking ports need to be adapted to enable all station elements to dock with both the Russian segment and the US and international segment. Including new Russian and US crew spacecraft.

We are also going to propose our new module as a science and power module or as a tourist module… Or maybe it will just serve as living quarters for the crew.

We are discussing with our partners the development of a lunar ascent/landing module. Europe is going to build the ascent module, and we are going to build the descent module. Or vice versa. We are going to propose our transportation system for missions to the lunar station. These include super-heavy rockets and the new spacecraft Federatsiya.

- And what the cosmonauts and astronauts are going to fly on? On US vehicles, or are we going to build in time both our spacecraft and a launch vehicle to send it to the lunar orbit?

- For now we cannot fix a precise date. A lot depends on when our super-heavy launch vehicle will be available. It is also possible to have two launches, two rockets, with the lunar transportation system assembled in this case in orbit. But this is pretty expensive. According to plans, the first launches of the super-heavy launch vehicle are to take place by 2028. Then it would be logical to use this rocket to launch the lunar spacecraft somewhere around 2028-2029..

- So does it mean that there will be two rockets capable of launching the Federatsiya spacecraft into orbit, both the new Soyuz-5 launch vehicle and the super-heavy one?

- Yes.

- And what is the outlook for Soyuz-5?

- We were ordered to proceed with this work at a meeting with Vladimir Putin which took place on May 22. How much time does it take for us to prepare a preliminary design? Usually at least a year. But it’s been only seven months and we have already passed the preliminary design review at the Rocket and Space Center Progress in Samara by the Scientific and Technical Council (STC) and by the presidium of RSC Energia STC. And by the end of January we are to submit the materials to the STC in Roscosmos. In the last 20 or 30 years we did not have a new product like this one, so everybody is very enthusiastic…

- Will there be a capability to retrieve and re-use Souz-5 rocket stages? Is it possible to use the same approach as the one used in Elon Musk’s Falcon 9 rocket?

- I believe that using thrusters for landing, as is the case in the Musk’s design is not very promising. Because 20 to 30 percent of the propellants loaded in the rocket are spent not on inserting the payload in the orbit, but rather on returning the rocket stage back to Earth. And this kills the economics of it. It turns out to be unprofitable.

We would rather think about a parachute system to be used for the rocket stage descent. I understand that this is a new technology and it’s not very simple, but it’s quite feasible.

There is no requirement in the statement of work from Roscosmos to make Soyuz-5 re-usable. But the subject is in the air. We are going to prepare an engineering memo, to do a technical proposal and a feasibility study for such an option.